ABSTRACT

Grassroots refugee hospitality is an innovative, if still little investigated field of practices, which illuminates and reshapes the native/immigrant divide. It also sheds light on ‘domestic humanitarianism’, as a range of everyday modes of helping that take place even in the domestic space. Drawing on a case study in Northern Italy, this article develops a framework on the societal implications of refugee hospitality, based on a multi-scalar view of home . From the inside, the lived experience of hospitality involves profound re-definitions of domesticity and meaningful personal changes for hosts and guests alike. From the outside, the connective function of local actors is crucial in shaping the lived experience of domestic reception. From the bottom up, hosting refugees is tantamount to opening, hence questioning, the most intimate threshold of the ‘national we’. Overall, and despite its limitations, domestic hospitality enables refugees to enter ‘home’ on different scales, from the micro-literal to the macro-metaphorical, thereby providing a potential counter-narrative to anti-immigrant discourses, emotions and politics.

摘要

草根难民款待是一个创新的实践领域，尽管仍然很少被调查，它阐明并重塑了本土/移民的鸿沟。它还阐明了“家庭人道主义”，这是一种甚至在家庭空间中也会发生的一系列日常帮助方式。本文借鉴意大利北部的案例研究，基于家庭的多尺度观点，开发了一个关于难民接待的社会影响的框架。从内部看，热情好客的生活体验涉及对家庭生活的深刻重新定义，以及对主人和客人都有意义的个人改变。从外部看，当地演员的联系功能对于塑造国内接待的生活体验至关重要。自下而上_, 收容难民无异于打开“民族我们”最私密的门槛，从而质疑。总的来说，尽管有其局限性，家庭款待使难民能够从微观文字到宏观隐喻的不同尺度进入“家”，从而为反移民的话语、情绪和政治提供潜在的反叙事。